The Malik Report

As is perhaps typical at this time of year, the Detroit Red Wings found themselves on the short end of a "crackdown," their power play was ineffective, and a gigantic brain fart from Jimmy Howard made the team's 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres far, far too "interesting"...

But Mikael Samuelsson's somewhat fluky-but-earned goal 12:05 into the 1st gave the Wings the lead...

The Wings ended up dealing with the Sabres' rather relentless smash-'em-into-the-boards checking, they somehow still found themselves tagged for 11:38 in PK time and 2:22's worth of 5-on-3 time, and didn't earn their third power play unti lthere was 3:58 left in the 3rd...

But, despite Jimmy Howard's doofiness (and Kyle Quincey standing around) giving the Sabres a significant amount of life with just over seven minutes in the 3rd...

The Wings' middling PP, oodles of PK time and their passive play in the 3rd didn't come back to bite 'em because Howard was superb, the defense blocked shots and passing lanes, while they didn't score, Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss were superb defensively, and after no-penalty-shot-scorer Cory Emmerton and Mikael Samuelsson were in the box, Joakim Andersson, Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson were fantastic on an extended 5-on-3.

It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a good start, and two regulation points without OT or a shootout against an unfamiliar opponent, despite some unfocused moments...

Are more than good enough for a "first game."

Update: Yeah, I know, I forgot the waved-off Bertuzzi goal when Cleary tripped into Miller. It was iffy.

Statistics:

Shots34-20 Detroit overall. Detroit out-shot Buffalo 8-6 in the 1st, 10-9 in the 2nd and 16-5 in the 3rd.

The Sabres went 0-for-7 in 11:38 of PP time, including 2:22 of 5-on-3 time; the Wings went 0-for-3 in 5:58 of PP time.

Ryan Miller stopped 32 of 34 shots; Jimmy Howard stopped 19 of 20.

The 3 stars were picked by Eddie Olczyk, and he picked Zegmus Girgensons, Kyle Quincey and Pavel Datsyuk.

Faceoffs: Datsyuk went 13-and-8 (62%); Andersson went 9-and-4 (69%), as did Weiss; Emmerton went 2-and-5 (29%); Miller and Franzen won their only faceoffs; Zetterberg and Cleary lost their only faceoffs.

Missed shots: Zetterberg missed the net 4 times and had 9 total attempts; Alfredsson and Cleary missed the net 1 time and had 6 attempts; Abdelkader, Datsyuk, Quincey, Bertuzzi and Ericsson missed the net 1 time.

Hits: Abdelkader led the Wings with 5 hits; Smith and Ericsson had 2; Samuelsson, Zetterberg, Cleary and Weiss had 1.

My understanding is that Cleary was going to change to #15, but either Paul Boyer said, “We’re done here” or, more likely, he wound up falling outside the NHL’s window of time in which one can change one’s jersey number in June and July, so once he picked #71, he was stuck with it.

Well, they certainly didn’t score, but I’d hardly call it “ineffective” or “middling.” In fact, the 1st unit looked absolutely lethal to me. I don’t think they had as much player and puck movement in all of last year’s power plays combined as they had in their three opportunities tonight.

Alfredsson brings a “Lidstrom-esque” level of danger from the outside and that seems to free everyone else up. And there was very little “holding” of the puck or two guys playing “catch” with it. Even the 2nd unit looked good. Imagine what it’ll be like when Gus and Tatar eventually replace Bert and Buckets – you know, in like two or three years.

OTC I certainly agree with you in regards with the power play. I only had the pleasure of watching the 3rd period; however, my eye lit up when I saw the first line controlling and playing with the puck. It has been a long time since I remember seeing something like that.

The faceoff % was atrocious! That is a stat we need to watch closely. I know pre-season means nothing, but we were amazing in pre-season faceoff % and were well under tonight. Datsyuk was clearly on his game in that department, but he was alone in his excellence.

You’re right! A brilliant $3 million dollar goal. The way Sammy skated around and through not only the players on the ice but weaved in and out of the players on the bench was Gretzkarian!

You should really get your hand out of Sammy’s pants.

Still, I am glad that line got a goal.

I only caught the third period. The wings looked good up until the goal and then again after Buffalo pulled their goalie. That latter reminded me of the Wings of the 90s looking like they were on the PP when they were actually killing off a penalty.

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.